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Matthew Pouliot

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May Shortstop Rankings

Welcome to the May shortstop rankings. As always, players are ranked based on how I believe they will perform in 5x5 scoring over the rest of the season. Included along with the position rankings is an updated top 300 list. I try to list players at the positions at which they're most valuable, so if you can't find that second baseman you're looking for, check shortstop instead.

I can’t say I’m thrilled about this list. One major question is how much faith to put into Gordon’s start. Obviously, he’s not a .357 hitter, but if he’s good enough to hang on to the leadoff spot all year, then he could steal 80 bases and score 90 runs. So, how good would he have to be to pull that off? I mean, .280 is perfectly realistic, but as rarely as Gordon walks, he’s not a great leadoff hitter while batting .280. But he doesn’t need to be great… he just needs to stay in the lineup and steal bases.

I’m putting him fifth, which seems like a compromise. If he were more of a lock for 550 at-bats, he’d be No. 3.

Andrus was going to stay in the third spot, but then manager Ron Washington had to go and drop him from second to ninth in the lineup on Sunday. That’s not a bad thing for the Rangers – handing Andrus the second spot in the lineup year after year was the bad thing for the Rangers – but it’s a pretty awful thing for his fantasy value. I’m guessing it’s just a temporary move while he’s slumping. If I thought Andrus were going to remain the ninth spot, he’d have fallen out of the top 10 here.

I still have a lot of faith in Miller, but it concerns me that the Mariners might not feel the same way. While I still think there’s a good chance he’ll be a top-10 shortstop the rest of the way, I can’t continue to rank him up there given that he’s lost playing time and he could be a bad week away from a demotion to Triple-A.

Welcome to the May shortstop rankings. As always, players are ranked based on how I believe they will perform in 5x5 scoring over the rest of the season. Included along with the position rankings is an updated top 300 list. I try to list players at the positions at which they're most valuable, so if you can't find that second baseman you're looking for, check shortstop instead.

I can’t say I’m thrilled about this list. One major question is how much faith to put into Gordon’s start. Obviously, he’s not a .357 hitter, but if he’s good enough to hang on to the leadoff spot all year, then he could steal 80 bases and score 90 runs. So, how good would he have to be to pull that off? I mean, .280 is perfectly realistic, but as rarely as Gordon walks, he’s not a great leadoff hitter while batting .280. But he doesn’t need to be great… he just needs to stay in the lineup and steal bases.

I’m putting him fifth, which seems like a compromise. If he were more of a lock for 550 at-bats, he’d be No. 3.

Andrus was going to stay in the third spot, but then manager Ron Washington had to go and drop him from second to ninth in the lineup on Sunday. That’s not a bad thing for the Rangers – handing Andrus the second spot in the lineup year after year was the bad thing for the Rangers – but it’s a pretty awful thing for his fantasy value. I’m guessing it’s just a temporary move while he’s slumping. If I thought Andrus were going to remain the ninth spot, he’d have fallen out of the top 10 here.

I still have a lot of faith in Miller, but it concerns me that the Mariners might not feel the same way. While I still think there’s a good chance he’ll be a top-10 shortstop the rest of the way, I can’t continue to rank him up there given that he’s lost playing time and he could be a bad week away from a demotion to Triple-A.

Matthew Pouliot is the Executive Editor of RotoWorld.com and has been doing the site's baseball projections for the last 10 years. Follow him on Twitter @matthewpouliot.Email :Matthew Pouliot